New Book Chronicles Photographer John Seaton Callahan’s Relentless Search for Waves

Callahan, deep in discovery. Photo: surfExplore

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It was in a distant quadrant of the Indian Ocean, on the deck of a chartered motor-yacht, hove-to off the shore of Little Andaman Island, that I received a transparent image of how dedicated photographer John Seaton Callahan was to his singular model of world surf exploration. Following a protracted voyage from Thailand, throughout which engine hassle twice pressured a return to port, the assembled crew of professional surfers recruited by Callahan to be the first-ever to go to this far-flung, ordinarily off-limits archipelago (to non-Indian nationals) had been restive, to say the least. So that when on the very first spot marked on Callahan’s British Admiralty charts they discovered an ideal, peeling six-foot left reef break, it appeared that the corrosive mixture of hardships and tedium had been washed away by the magic of a pristine surf discovery.

Or so it appeared, till after only some hours of browsing — the primary in weeks — Callahan referred to as the surfers again to the boat, commanding the skipper to drag up anchor and proceed the search additional alongside the island coast. A veritable mutiny ensued, with one notably incensed professional threatening bodily hurt (no names, not less than not right here.) Callahan stood his floor, nonetheless, insisting that the entire level of this expedition — which he was solely answerable for arranging — was to discover the globe’s distant coastlines. And with swell within the water, and situations perfect, who knew what we would discover across the subsequent distant level. The crew wasn’t shopping for it, however none had been too eager about swimming residence, in order that they sulkily clustered up within the bow, muttering protests. Yes, muttering, till revealed round that distant level was an epic, tropical Jeffreys Bay: lengthy, uniform traces of spinning tubes, never-before seen by one other surfer.

That incident at sea was Callahan in a nutshell; nobody within the historical past of the game has taken the seek for surf as critically, and has chronicled these surfaris so comprehensively. As exhibited within the new e book surfEXPLORE — Discovering New Surfing Locations Worldwide, an enormous, full-color quantity profiling expeditions to twenty-eight of the international locations on whose shores Callahan has targeted his lens and fertile creativeness.  Seemed like a great time, all these years later, to meet up with John for perspective on his countless quest for untracked waves. You might say I owe him — that session within the Andaman level break was one of many best experiences of my life.

After years making a reputation for your self capturing browsing in Hawaii, what first triggered your shift from what is perhaps referred to as “conventional’ surf photography,” to scouring the planet to doc beforehand unridden waves?

I grew up in Hawaii and whenever you take a look at a map, it is extremely clear – the Hawaiian Islands are however tiny dots within the huge, open expanse of the North Pacific Ocean. I feel it’s only pure for island folks, as soon as they’ve totally explored their small a part of the world, to surprise “what else might be out there?” and if they’ve the time and the means, to exit and go searching. That’s what I’ve been doing.

There has additionally been a shift from the “someone” to the “something” within the browsing pictures world. Now that we’re previous the journal period, there may be much less emphasis on personalities in browsing and as browsing has unfold all over the world, persons are extra within the “where” than the “who.” 

In journal days within the Seventies and ’80s, when the browsing world was a lot smaller, personalities bought magazines and made advertisers comfortable so photographers had been inspired to give attention to folks. Now, personalities gasoline development on particular person Instagram accounts and browsing editorial photos are extra targeted on the place – large waves at Nazaré, Maverick’s and Teahupo’o and naturally; the all-time favourite, the thriller lineup with nobody browsing that can lead to tons of of feedback for a single picture in a big Facebook group like Legendary Surfers with 300,000 members.

There’s all the time a lot to discover in Indonesia. Photo: John Seaton Callahan

Describe an expertise on considered one of your earliest expeditions that basically set the hook, inspiring you to grow to be extra critical about your surf exploration efforts.

I feel a few of these Isla Natividad tasks with SURFING journal had been instrumental in stoking my curiosity to find new waves elsewhere on this planet. Not solely did Natividad have superb waves, however the entire story that Larry “Flame” Moore advised about determining the setup with Sean Collins – the traditional onshore wind for many of Baja California Sur would really blow offshore at Natividad, because the island was positioned far sufficient west so south swell might make it to the east aspect of the island. It was placing collectively the completely different variables of swell, wind, tide and site that was interesting, so I began fascinated about the way to apply this rational thought course of to different places which may have good waves.

Before subtle surf forecasting and Google Earth, what instruments did you depend on to remotely search the world’s coastlines and oceans for distant, undiscovered surf spots.

It wasn’t simple – paper maps of some sort had been the one supply of knowledge. Most maps revealed at the moment had been meant for driving, displaying roads and intersections, so not notably helpful for something to do with the shoreline or the ocean. 

As on the lookout for new waves includes ocean bathymetry as a lot because the land contours, the perfect supply of knowledge was a nautical chart, both the U.S. Defense Mapping Agency (DMA) or the UK British Admiralty collection. When I used to be at UCLA, there have been any variety of specialty libraries on campus and considered one of them was the UCLA Map Library, which was small and fairly obscure however was solely maps! It was the primary place I used to be uncovered to a nautical chart and shortly realized most of the DMA and British Admiralty charts had been the identical data, as a consequence of data sharing agreements between the U.S. and the U.Okay.

Describe your very organized journal function manufacturing protocol: which surfers you recruited in your expeditions, and why.

I used to be all the time on the lookout for individuals who might carry extra to the desk than simply their browsing capacity. At the sponsored-surfer degree, everybody can journey waves, I used to be all the time on the lookout for individuals who had an curiosity in exploration, new locations, new cultures, individuals who had some journey information and expertise so we might keep away from the dreaded stereotype of the professional surfer who goes on a global surf journey for 2 weeks to Indonesia, Angola or Peru and by no means takes his headphones off besides to go within the water and surf!

Certainly you couldn’t have all the time scored. Describe your most memorable “dry hole.”

Ha, ha, that’s true. I like to inform folks “you can always score waves, it just depends how long you are willing to wait.” That is true up to some extent, as regardless of how a lot time, cash, effort and analysis you place right into a mission, nobody can management the ocean.

We have had a number of tasks in The Philippines the place we had been in the best place on the proper time, however there was no hurricane exercise within the western Pacific, nothing. It was scorching and sunny with 15 knots offshore southwest wind all day, daily however no waves – lifeless flat, not even a ripple. When you’re spending a thousand {dollars} a day of different folks’s cash on a chartered live-aboard boat and there’s no surf in any respect, folks begin getting anxious and shortly, very quickly, destructive opinions concerning your management, information and expertise at doing this kind of factor are being expressed, to place it mildly. 

For distinction, describe your most memorable discovery. Was it due to the waves you discovered, or some explicit expertise alongside the best way?

We have had a number of conditions the place, taking a look at good, empty waves in a lineup that has by no means been surfed by anybody I couldn’t assist considering “This is what it’s all about – all the time, money, effort and planning, this is it right here.”

One of these instances was the primary day we pulled up at what we later referred to as Kumari Point within the Andaman Islands and noticed the lengthy, offshore rights on the level, breaking via a number of hundred meters of flawless sections all the best way to the seashore with the Onge aboriginal village on the base of the purpose. This location had regarded good on the charts with a northwest wind and a southwest swell and that turned out to be true, very true, and it’s sure we had been the primary group of individuals ever to surf at this location. No one has ever come ahead to say in any other case!

When it involves extra historically organized “surf travel stories,” how would you characterize the distinction between the usual “look what we found” function, and the strategy you’ve taken all through the a long time?

I might say it’s all about context. The sort of tasks I’ve tried to do with The surfEXPLORE Group have all the time been about extra than simply the waves. We all the time look into the native tradition, customs and notably the folks, how they react to having guests within the space and if they need guests or not. In the journal days, editors like your self had been involved with maintaining editorial options on observe and readers entertained and that meant waves and extra waves, slicing the National Geographic stuff to a minimal and specializing in what surf journal readers need, which is extra waves.

surfExplore dives into Callahan’s many adventures, which entailed way more than simply browsing.

In the face of years of the surf media’s hypocritical exploitation coverage of “show but not tell,” you’ve all the time not less than recognized the international locations you’ve visited. Explain why. 

This is definitely a part of a a lot greater query in regards to the validity of “secret spots” – is concealing places a sound technique? Or is it simply wealthy, egocentric, white folks attempting to maintain poor brown folks poor for many years, to allow them to proceed to return to their low cost paradise surf vacation places season after season, being waited on by brown folks and browsing high-quality, warm-water waves with as few wealthy, white Western surfers like themselves as attainable?

In distinction, let’s take a look at some of the well-known waves on this planet, Lagundri Bay on the south coast of the island of Nias in North Sumatra, a flawless reef break thought of by many to be the perfect right-hand barrel on this planet.

I’ve to suppose there are quite a lot of residents of Sorake Village, the village in entrance of the wave, who should get up within the morning and suppose they’re the luckiest village in Indonesia if not the world, for the unbelievable present of their yard. The waves had been one thing that they didn’t develop or make, that had nothing to do with authorities or faith and that till in 1975 the three “orang putih“  [“white men”] turned up with surfboards, paddled out and began driving the waves in entrance of the village. Waves that as much as that time had no objective, however had been, the truth is, a hazard to the locals of their hand-carved wood fishing canoes.

Once the phrase started to flow into, extra surfers arrived within the village. Losmen had been constructed to accommodate these guests and cash started to stream into Sorake. Growth was uneven till 2005, when a significant earthquake within the area raised the ocean ground roughly two meters, turning what had been a great wave right into a roaring eight to ten-second barrel, bettering wave high quality whereas different well-known waves within the space, like Bawa and Asu within the Hinako Islands, weren’t nearly as good after the earthquake and ultimately misplaced favor and guests.

In the previous 20 years, foreigners offered capital after the earthquake and extra visitor homes have been constructed, run by native households on their land in a cooperative association, guaranteeing everybody within the village who desires a job can have one. These guesthouses present an countless provide of revenue to native households for 9 months of the yr, as hundreds of worldwide guests journey tens of hundreds of kilometers to reach at an obscure village on Nias Island to surf among the best waves on this planet.

This large improve in residing requirements has made Sorake the richest village on Nias and is completely attributed to worldwide guests and their cash, a rise in wealth which by no means would have occurred in any respect if Lagundri Bay had been stored as a “secret spot” for the advantage of just a few wealthy, white Western surfers and their pals.

I’m positive you keep in mind that time within the Andamans, when, after all the things it took so that you can get the Crescent and crew to that distant spot on the map, and occurred to discover a good, six-foot left reef break, you skilled a near-mutiny whenever you introduced we had been pulling up anchor and continuing to discover the remainder of the shoreline whereas the situations had been so perfect. Had something like that occurred to you earlier than, or has it since? 

Yes, that was a tough state of affairs, to maneuver the boat from a location with superb waves in any case the issue and drama simply to get there, but with the unbelievable waves we discovered at Kumari Point, it turned out to be the best choice.  But we’ve had comparable conditions on different tasks, when shifting was not one thing different folks wished to do. One of them was on a live-aboard boat off the coast of Morotai in North Maluku province of Pacific Indonesia. After an extended transit from Manado in Sulawesi, we had been at a great left reef wave, a wave that has since grow to be one of many extra well-liked waves on this space, and there was swell and good situations. And similar to that point within the Andamans, a lot of the surfers on the boat simply wished to remain there and surf. And once more, I mentioned we have to transfer and go searching precisely as a result of now we have good swell and situations. If we wait till it goes flat, we might go proper previous setups that we will’t see as a result of there isn’t any swell. It took an hour or so of spirited dialogue to persuade everybody to drag the anchor, however we had been rewarded with a pleasant right-hand level later the following day that we in all probability would have gone proper previous it if we had been wanting when there was no swell.  

surfEXPLORE — Discovering New Surfing Locations Worldwide is offered from Schifferbooks.